Sevenoaks Newsletter the NORTH WEST KENT FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY, SEVENOAKS, KENT
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11 JULY 2013 ISSUE NUMBER 11 Sevenoaks Newsletter THE NORTH WEST KENT FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY, SEVENOAKS, KENT www.nwkfhs.org.uk Welcome to NWKFHS Sevenoaks Branch. In addition to the NEXT BRANCH MEETING talks, we have a number of interesting tables for you to browse. These include a bookstall, old magazines and NO AUGUST MEETING journals, exchange journals and a reference book library. TH 12 SEPTEMBER AT SEVENOAKS Plus don't forget to take a look at our notice board. Pipe Makers - Brian Boyden The books from our library may be borrowed at no charge and the magazines are a snip at 20 pence each. You might just find the publication or book you are looking for. OTHER BRANCH MEETINGS Meetings are held on the second Thursday of the month BROMLEY at Sevenoaks Community Centre, Otford Road Sevenoaks, TN13 5DN. Doors open at 7.15pm, meeting starts at 8pm. 20 TH JULY – The history of smuggling in Kent and Sussex There is free car parking - and refreshments are available. GEOFF HUTCHINSON We welcome visitors and new members, and we aspire to 17 th AUGUST – Watermen & Lightermen offer all the helpful advice that you might need, we hope ROB COTTRELL you enjoy your visit. DARTFORD Guests we appreciate a £1.00 donation to the society's funds. 3RD AUGUST – The burial grounds of Southwark _____________________________________________ Stephen Humphrey THIS EVENING’S TALK IS ‘A PLACE IN THE SUN – th 7 September – The London Fire Brigade – its history and SUN FIRE INSURANCE RECORDS’ records of its workers Isobel Watson is an established researcher and writer of Local T.B.A History. She notably initiated a volunteer indexing project of Sun Fire Insurance records, which she informatively speaks to us on this evening. News Items British Library's new resource for newspapers and other media invite family historians to take part in a focus group to shape its development – At the start of 2014, a new Reading Room will open at the British Library building in St Pancras offering a range of current and historical news content in multi-media formats (e.g. UK and Irish newspapers from the 18 th century, news content from 15 UK TV channels, 10,000 radio news items, web archive of news sites etc.), plus various value- added services for researchers and others. The British Library has commissioned IRN Research, an independent research agency, to run a series of focus groups in the w/c 22nd July in Holborn, Central London, where potential users can offer their views and comments, and find out more about the new resource. They are particularly interested in obtaining the views of family historians whether they are current British Library users or not. Each group will run for 1.5 hours and there will be a payment of £30 for each group participant and IRN Research will also donate £1 for each participant to its charity ‘Save the Children’. Anyone interested should email [email protected] including their telephone number, or call David Mort on 07905 239599, and IRN Research will then contact them with more information. The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich – information to become available - Ray Fordham worked for the Woolwich Arsenal for many years as an electrician. His working life ended in retirement when the Arsenal closed. During this time many tons of paperwork was being destroyed and Ray retained some that he thought were worthwhile keeping. The information relating to part of this material is as follows. • A list of 1 st World War (1914-18) disabled who were employed at the Arsenal during the period 1936 to 1945. This database includes name, date of birth, clock & centre number, date of birth, date employed and nature of disability. There are over 800 names. • A list of air raid casualties during the 2 nd World War (1941-1945). This database gives name, address, hospital they were taken to, and injury. There are over 500 names. • The Arsenal had its own doctor’s surgery and medical staff were able to do operations on site. The data base is for 1906 and has over 500 names. The information includes name, age, case number, department they worked in and ‘concern’. Typical were ruptures, hernias, splinters, appendicitis etc. The doctor would also come out to the home if the employee lived within 3 miles of the arsenal. • Roy also retrieved some 40 photographs of children’s parties held in the arsenal during the 1950s. No one is identified. The information is in the process of ‘tidying’ and Ray would like to make the above information readily available to all but before he does so would welcome enquiries to give him an idea of its precision. He would like enquiries to go in the first instance to Barbara Phillips on [email protected] who will pass them on. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Events rd 3 August – Researching Publican & Brewery Ancestors – SOG, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Rd, EC1M 7BA Until fairly recently the public house in its various guises was a centre of the community and innkeepers were often respected figures locally. In addition most towns and villages had a brewery or two providing beer to slake the throats of everybody from princes to paupers. This course will discuss the major sources you will need to use if you have a publican or brewer on your family tree. It will also look at the changing nature of the tavern from the simple beer house to gaudy gin palace . Lecturer Simon Fowler - Time 1030-1300 - Cost: £17.50 pre-book, by email: [email protected] Contact no. 020 7553 3290 27 August, 3, 10, 17 & 24 September, 1, 8, & 15 October –Maidstone’s historic past - Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery, St Faith’s St, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1LH Discover Maidstone’s historic past. Meet at the Museum’s Bentlif Library at 11.30 on Tuesdays for refreshment and an engaging talk, followed by a town walk led by a qualified guide. Booking essential at reception or call 01622 602838. Cost Adults £5.00 Editor Bernadette Wilkins - [email protected] Registered Charity No. 282627 Historical Figure – Charles Dickens new contacts in the press he was able to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym 'Boz'. In April 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth who edited 'Sketches by Boz'. Within the same month came the publication of the highly successful 'Pickwick Papers’ and from that point on there was no looking back for Dickens. As well as a huge list of novels he published autobiography, edited weekly periodicals including 'Household Words' and 'All Year Round', wrote travel books and administered charitable organisations. He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed before Queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was inexhaustible and he spent much time abroad - for example lecturing against slavery in the United States and touring Italy with companions Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins, a contemporary writer. Charles Dickens is much loved for his great contribution to classic English literature. He was the quintessential Dickens's novels were, among other things, works of social Victorian author. His epic stories, vivid characters and commentary. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social exhaustive depiction of contemporary life are unforgettable. stratification of Victorian society. At a time when Britain was the major economic and political power of the world, His own story is one of rags to riches. Charles John Huffam Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, at Landport in disadvantaged within society. Through his journalism he Portsea, the second of eight children to John Dickens campaigned on specific issues, such as sanitation and the (1785-1851) and Elizabeth Dickens (née Barrow 1789- workhouse. His fiction probably demonstrated its greatest 1863). His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and prowess in changing public opinion in regard to class was temporarily on duty in the district. Soon after Charles inequalities. He often depicted the exploitation and birth the family moved to Norfolk Street, Bloomsbury, and oppression of the poor and condemned the public officials then, when he was four, to Chatham, Kent, where he spent and institutions that not only allowed such abuses to exist, his formative years until the age of 11. His early years but flourished as a result. In a New York address, he seem to have been idyllic; Charles spent time outdoors, but expressed his belief that, "Virtue shows quite as well in rags also read voraciously, especially the picaresque novels of and patches as she does in purple and fine linen". Dickens's Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. He retained poignant second novel, Oliver Twist (1839), shocked readers with its memories of childhood, helped by a near-photographic images of poverty and crime: it destroyed middle class memory of people and events, which he used in his writing. polemics about criminals, making any pretence to ignorance His father's brief period as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office about what poverty entailed impossible. gave him a few years of private education, first at a dame- school, and then at a school run by William Giles, a He was estranged from his wife in 1858 after the birth of dissenter, in Chatham. their ten children, but maintained relations until his death with his mistress, actress Ellen Ternan, 27 years his junior. The good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine His sister in law Georgina Howgarth had joined the Dickens was short-lived as his father, inspiration for the character of household in 1842.